1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to decentralized resource management control and in particular to a master baseboard management controller election and replacement sub-system to manage shared common resources in an information handling system of multiple server nodes.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continue to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
In a highly demanding computing and information handling environment requiring multiple computing systems, many are turning to the high density server which provides an information handling system comprised of several server nodes in a single rack or chassis. The high density server contains shared resources such as power supplies, sensors, fans, KVMs, shared storage and I/O subsystem. Each server node is configured to share the resources utilizing the chassis management controller (CMC), which eases the configuration process from manual configuration by person. The CMC controls and monitors the shared resources on behalf of the server nodes. The sharing of key resources like power supplies and fans allows for more compact chassis and server nodes. In order to have a built-in reliability for the control and monitoring of the shared resources, the CMC is often designed with redundancy which can be costly in both cost and space to the design of the chassis.
Each server node contains a baseboard management controller (BMC) that is a management subsystem that defines a set of common interfaces to the hardware and firmware that is used to monitor the server node's health and manage the subsystem. The BMC includes a specialized microcontroller embedded on the motherboard of a computer, generally a server. The BMC manages the interface between system management software and hardware. Different types of sensors that monitor the hardware report to the BMC on parameters such as temperature, cooling fan speeds, power status, operating system (OS) status, etc. The BMC monitors the sensors and can send alerts to a system administrator if any of the parameters do not stay within predefined limits. The alerts indicate a potential failure of the system. Additionally, the BMC can send health status to a system administrator.
The redundancy of the CMC to control and monitor the shared common resources adds not only extra cost, but also lowers the reliability of the chassis structure when operational complexity of additional hardware and cables in the chassis drives higher failure rates. Often, the server nodes are designed to be compatible to the complex CMC. It would be advantageous to provide a less complicated and more reliable chassis control structure.